I like food in the Yangtze Delta area. It is a little bit gentle in your tongue. And I also like Cantonese food. There's more variety. The problem that I have with spicy food is that it overwhelms every other sense that you have. So Hunan food, a little bit too spicy for me. Where? Where? You pick your favorite. Yeah, opinions differ on that. I like linen food. My parents, one came from Hubei,. one came from Hunan and they eat very spicy food. But I grew up in Beijing. I didn't eat very spicyFood.com: Why do you think Chinese Americans have done so much less
Yasheng Huang has written two of Tyler’s favorite books on China: Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, which contrasts an entrepreneurial rural China and a state-controlled urban China, and The Rise and Fall of the EAST, which argues that Keju—China’s civil service exam system—played a key role in the growth and expanding power of the Chinese state.
Yasheng joined Tyler to discuss China’s lackluster technological innovation, why declining foreign investment is more of a concern than a declining population, why Chinese literacy stagnated in the 19th century, how he believes the imperial exam system deprived China of a thriving civil society, why Chinese succession has been so stable, why the Six Dynasties is his favorite period in Chinese history, why there were so few female emperors, why Chinese and Chinese Americans have done less well becoming top CEOs of American companies compared to Indians and Indian Americans, where he’d send someone on a two week trip to China, what he learned from János Kornai, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded January 17th, 2023
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Photo credit: MIT Sloan School